I was just reading the terriffic blog of Ashworth Graphic Design Instructor, Mike Nelson. The blog is called, The Ideation Phase, and it’s is a great resource for all of our graphic design, web design, interior design, and photography students.
Mike recently profiled a couple graphic designers that should definitely inspire our students. Check their sites out and be sure to drop in and say “hello” to Mike when you get a chance. Thanks Mike!
Greg Lamarche uses a collage to create his work and does a great job.
Hornall Anderson is a Seattle based graphic design firm that is simply phenomenal.
With their latest groundbreaking video, created from 3-D data captured by the latest in laser scanning technologies, Radiohead continues to close in on the singularity many of our childhood friends may or may not be sleeping through. The video speaks for itself, so my story ends here. I’ve included a link to the “making of the video” as well. These features are usually boring, but this one is actually cool. Check it out…
Joshua Davis is acknowledged as one of the most innovative multimedia-digital designers the world has ever seen. Creator of such seminal web sites as Praystation, whose’ radical use of open source flash applications was almost unheard of at the time; Davis has redefined the very concept of “interactivity” for a generation of web designers. His relentlessly creative work defies classification and incorporates elements of physics, mathematics, code, architecture, etc. Are you getting the picture? This guy is a monster. I decided to post this video chronicling his work on what is now considered a legendary campaign for BMW’s Z4 automobile. It doesn’t matter if you’re a web designer, graphic designer, or just someone who appreciates brilliance in any form; you should take a few minutes to learn from Joshua Davis. Let me know your thoughts. Who are some of your favorite designers? If you’re not sure, simply share some of your favorite web sites with the Ashworth student community. Talk to you later.
Thanks to Heidi Kuisma for permission to use this Photo.
“Get The Glass” is an interactive flash website oriented around animation, gaming, and oddly enough: milk. In fact, it’s actually a microsite developed for the Got Milk? marketing campaign, a campaign that never seems to run out of money by the way. It must be working. The interactive gaming component has certainly crossed over into mainstream marketing strategies, so all of our student web design students should take note of what makes this site a success. You’ll notice the flash applications are not groundbreaking by any means, and they’re not intended to be; the focus is on the execution of the site’s message. Because the designers understood how to use interactivity as a tool to communicate rather than an end in itself, “Get The Glass” was recognized as one of 2007’s top microsites. Personally, I don’t want to drink more milk, which probably means that I’m already the victim of some other campaign, probably for grape soda.
I love the mixture of hand work and collage in Damien Correll’s work. I also feel that his experience in creating type has elevated his understanding of font in all of his projects to a level that is unique. Each letter in all of his pieces is so appropriately drawn, chosen, and/or placed.
The design applications provided by the latest in motion capture/rapid prototyping technologies are empowering new designers to experiment like never before. Front is a furniture design company based out Sweden and they have pioneered the use of this amazing technology, which allows the user to take their traditional free hand sketches and translate them into 3-D digital files; the process doesn’t end there though. These virtual design files are then transformed into actual physical models that mirror what one originally began as a free-hand sketch! It’s quite an abstract process to describe with words, so I’ll let the following video show you what’s it all about. Whether you’re a graphic, web, fashion, or interior designer—you should feel excited that such tools are becoming increasingly available on the market at affordable prices. Have you had an opportunity to work with a design program of this nature? Let us know.
Are you in the mood for some Action? I’m talking Photoshop Actions
They are the perfect solution to handle tasks with one click. An Action is a recording of several Photoshop operations and commands. Once the Action is created, one click is all it takes and the task will be executed. It’s very powerful, can save you heaps of time and it’s actually not that hard to create. Oh and before someone asks, this tutorial is written for version CS3. Certain things might be different in previous Photoshop versions.
In my previous article I talked about how you can apply a vintage look on a photo. Someone pointed out, “Wonderful technique. I stumbled across something sort of similar a while ago but it’s too time consuming to keep on applying” Yes, good point of course. I have to confess, I have this effect recorded in an Action, but my tutorial was all about the process on how to create this effect. The surprise that people didn’t know about Actions gave me the idea for today’s tutorial: how to create an Action for this effect, or better how to record an Action. We’ll also look at a few options you can do or add to your Action and how to save it.
Creating an Action
Step 1 : Create New Action
Open a photo where you want to apply the vintage effect on. First make sure the image is on a separate layer on top of the background layer. You could use command/control + j to duplicate it in a new layer. Open up the Actions palette. If it’s not visible on your screen, go to Window > Actions. First click the folder icon Create New Set at the bottom of the palette to create your own set of Actions. Name the Set My Actions or any other name you think is better. Now click the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the palette. Name the Action Vintage Effect and hit Record.
Step 2 : Record the Action
Notice that the red record button in the Action palette is pushed or being active. Every Photoshop handling is now recorded into the Action. Now execute all handlings explained in the Phototshop Vintage Effect article. While doing this, take your time, there is no need to rush. Photoshop only records your actions and commands. The speed in how you perform this doesn’t matter. When you’re done click the Stop button in the Action palette. The Action is now stored in the palette in the ‘My Actions’ Set.
Adding a Pause to an Action
What if there is one command in the action that you’ve recorded that is different for each individual image? For instance you need to make a selection and for each image this selection is different. This is something you can add after the Action is recorded. For example if I want to add a pause for applying the Curves, then I need to toggle the dialogue function on next to the Curves ‘Make adjustement layer’ action (see picture below).
Cascading Stylesheets, or CSS, can be pretty awkward at times. It allows you total control over the presentation of a webpage within a browser; but having the resulting webpage look identical in each different browser (IE, FireFox, et al) can sometimes be difficult. Here’s a selection of handy tips I’ve found - see if they help you too.
This odd 100.01% value for the font size compensates for several browser bugs. First, setting a default body font size in percent (instead of em) eliminates an IE/Win problem with growing or shrinking fonts out of proportion if they are later set in ems in other elements. Additionally, some versions of Opera will draw a default font-size of 100% too small compared to other browsers. Safari, on the other hand, has a problem with a font-size of 101%. The current “best” suggestion is to use the 100.01% value for this property.
All of them can apply to a hyperlink, and in some cases, more than one will apply. For example, an unvisited link can be hovered and active at the same time as it’s an unvisited link. Since three of the above rules apply to the hyperlink, and the selectors all have the same specificity, then the last one listed wins. Therefore, the “active” style will never appear, because it will always be overridden by the “hover” style. (more…)
Sony Ericsson has recently launched a colorful global mini-site to promote its new W910i and W580 models. Everything is conceived around a rather psychedelic experience that mixes music and colors and allows users to create unique and personalized kaleidoscopes.
It’s a nice site, and apparently a lot of people have already created their own kaleidoscope.
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